The singer journeyed across the Commonwealth to find music talent to contribute to the official Diamond Jubilee song Sing, and on one of his jaunts, he found himself in the Solomon islands where he was ambushed by a group of men carrying spears and wearing necklacesdecorated with teeth.

Gary told The Sun: “We were all white men and there were only eight of us. I really did think, ‘They’ve taken us all this way up the river and they could kill us and eat us alive and no one would know’.”

Luckily, Gary was spared and he was allowed to carry on with his talent search.
»Huffpost

It was in fact a traditional welcome by tribesman in rural Solomon Islands – all dressing up for the event.

Gary said in the interview: “We were all white men and there were only eight of us.”
“I really did think, ‘They’ve taken us all this way up the river and they could kill us and eat us alive and no one would know’.”

The Sun ran a huge front pager with a headline that read, “I thought spear wielding cannibals were going to eat us.”

“I find this sort of misconceptions very distasteful,” said Tony, a Solomon Islander living in London, in an e-mail to Solomon Times. “It reinforces the sick misconception in the developed world that countries like us still have man-eating savages while the rest of the world has moved on.”

“It is disappointing to hear that, we made a lot of effort to show him the beauty of our country, the diversity…and all he could talk about was that he was scared we might eat him,” said one of the organizers that took Gary’s entourage into rural parts of the country.

“In fact one of our Members of Parliament was one of those dressed in traditional attire there to welcome him to his constituency, so that was the level of arrangement we made for him.”
»What Cannibals?

Raising eyebrows by such high calibre people or celebrity like Barlow puts the Solomon Islands in front of many Pacific neighbours not only in Britain but around the world. As a place of adventure, lovely people, and so different of its own right.

Positive media coverage of the Solomon Islands can be seen in the documentary of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee worldover- Barlow humbly paddled a canoe and the warriors welcomed him, a local church choir singing, our SI Royal Police Band playing; are among the things and places in the world that have special place in the queen’s heart.

It is remarkable and moving to learn about why Queen Elizabeth II humbly chosen a simple ordinary village of Namuga (Makira) as a first place to set foot at in the Solomon Islands.

Thank you Gary Barlow to make a romantic and adventurous comment of our Solomon Islands, So different.

Guys, let us show case our pride in our culture by welcoming the Prince and Princess of Cambridge in September 2012, and tell the worldover that we are the people with unique cultures and traditions forming the Solomon Islands.
»Solomon Times Online